Google has finally updated all of its flagship iOS apps with privacy labels

All of the major iPhone and iPad apps from Google how now finally been updated with privacy nutrition label data—four months after the App Privacy section went live on the App Store.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Major iOS apps from Google now show privacy information.
  • The App Store privacy labels went live in December 2020.
  • Gmail and YouTube added privacy data in February 2021.
  • Google Docs and Calendar did the same in March 2021.

Google’s privacy disclosures

According to The 8-Bit, Google Photos was updated with App Privacy details on Tuesday while Google Maps received a related update of its own last week, meaning all of Google’s popular iOS apps now adhere to Apple’s rules and show customers what data Google is collecting.

The App Privacy section within the App Store went live in December 2020, the idea being that the new “nutrition labels” would help customers understand how an app is collecting and using their data before they download it. Developers self-submit privacy information data, and while the vast majority of developers wasted no time submitting this data, Google took its time.

But as Google did not update any of its major iOS apps for several weeks, people got concerned that the company was not being transparent about its data collection. Finally, Google in January 2021 began adding privacy disclosures to some of its lesser-known apps.

How to transfer iCloud photos and videos to Google Photos

In February 2021, more popular apps like YouTube, Gmail and Search began showing the required App Privacy information in their respective App Store listings. In March, Google Docs and Calendar were updated with privacy information.

And now, all of the flagship iOS apps from Google show these privacy nutrition labels on the App Store. Plus, with the upcoming release of iOS 14.5, Apple will start requiring apps to seek permission from users before they’re being tracked across other apps and websites, a feature dubbed App Tracking Transparency.